Regulars (Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle)

We’ve heard great news about blue crabs. The total population has risen this past year to almost 600 million, according to the 2019 Winter Dredge Survey.

Best of all, the sooks, our female spawning-age crabs, have reached a population of 190 million, only 35 million under the target level for healthy reproduction success that we should be striving to maintain all along. The spawning-size female population is the major factor in maintaining a healthy blue crab population.

This is cause for celebration, not news to take for granted. Just last year, the female population dropped by more than 35 percent after particularly frigid wintertime temperatures. Yet Department of Natural Resources allowed regular commercial female harvest limits in 2018.

As we were not in actual crisis, merely headed that way, DNR gambled on the fecundity of the blue crab to gradually restore the female stocks. Another deadly winter was discounted.

Luckily, this time the wager was right. Thanks to mild temperatures and an unusually generous Mother Nature, the female population bounced back this spring with unexpectedly significant gains. We are once again, and almost miraculously, approaching the female population target of 215 million achieved only twice in the last 30 years.

We’ve been slow to recognize the necessity of an ample female spawning population. Only recently has science debunked the assumption that female crabs spawned only once and thus could subsequently be harvested without limit or consequence.

Now crab managers have set commercial female harvest limits and banned recreational harvest of sooks. Since then, the blue crab population has tended to stability.

Another help in achieving stability was the establishment of two species-management benchmarks: a minimum threshold of 70 million female crabs and the target threshold of 215 million. Both figures are founded in good science.

The target threshold is the population level necessary to allow the species to be comfortably resilient to natural population fluctuations.

The minimum threshold is the critical level that, if crossed, could send the species spiraling into population collapse.

Numbers between the two thresholds don’t justify complacency. This year’s count of 190 million females does not make it safe to harvest females. It’s courting crisis to allow harvests that push the population down near the minimum level.

It’s easy to succumb to temptation to harvest more crabs. Maryland consumes virtually every blue crab harvested in its portion of the Bay, every year, plus some of the crabs harvested by Virginia and a substantial portion of the crabs harvested in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Texas. In lean years, a bushel of crabs in Maryland can bring more than $300.

Maryland’s 4,000 licensed commercial crabbers have only a few months to make their annual income. It’s natural to want to make hay while the sun shines.

Further complicating conservation efforts is demography. Female crabs favor the southern, more saline portion of the Bay. Hence watermen there are far more dependent upon the sooks for their income.

All of these factors translate into intense pressure to allow generous female harvests — despite their critical value to the overall population.

So I’m arguing that this year’s achievement makes a fine foundation for an even-brighter future. There is plenty of room in the Chesapeake for an expanded crab population. Not too long ago, our Bay held more than twice as many blue crabs. It is neither naive nor optimistic to manage more forcefully toward numbers just as high.

Fish Finder

Rockfish season moves into its second phase May 16 with a two-fish limit (one may be 28-plus inches) in the main Bay. Tributaries and the eastern Bay remain closed to protect stripers still spawning.

If you’re determined to catch a fish, go after channel catfish. Big ones, some over 30 inches, are available to anyone soaking a bait anywhere on the bottom. Big bloodworms, crawlers, fresh alewife and cut white perch produce the best bite. Some trollers dragging baits close to the bottom are getting a few as well.

Blue catfish and flatheads are also beginning to show up in the mix; the blues have a small culinary edge over the other two species.

There are reports of white perch taking spinner baits along estuary shorelines.

Blue crabs are also showing up in seafood markets as well as in some recreational traps and on trotlines.

I finally got my second keeper rockfish at about 11am, but only after releasing some dozen undersized schoolies and more than two dozen burly and uncooperative channel cats. The sun had already been blazing hot for some time. I was scorched and pooped as I headed back in for a shower, a sandwich and a nap.

I do love Chesapeake summertime, but I’ve now had enough summer, really. These endless 90-degree-plus days have left me limp and senseless. With surface water temperatures that soar into the 80s with the rising sun, finding rockfish early and fast has become a necessity. There’s not a lot of time to search before the bigger fish have fled down deep to cooler water and unknown locations. But that should change soon.

Late August gave us a few nights in the 60s, and a lot more are to come now that September is here.

One of my more reliable piscatorial analysts, waterman and soothsayer Leo James, tells me that he suspects that when the dolphin invaded the Chesapeake this summer and effectively pushed most of the mid-Bay rockfish up past Rock Hall, a lot of the larger fish went up the rivers to escape — and stayed there.

As fall temperatures arrive, the baitfish in those tributaries will descend toward the mainstem. The big fish that have been feeding on them will follow them down. As the menhaden, silverside minnows and Bay anchovies form their wintering schools and stage for migration, all of our gamefish will start the fall feed-up in preparation for wintertime.

The shortening daylight and temperature drops trigger all sorts of instinctive behavior in the many species of the Chesapeake. Just about all of it is good news for anglers.

To put on fat, our gamefish —rockfish, bluefish, croaker, spot and perch — will start chasing bait actively in the shallows, particularly early and late in the day. We’ll also spot them under birds, working the gathering baitfish schools in both deep and shallow water. The gamefish will stay on station longer, especially when there are overcasts and showers. Bluefish, particularly, will also become more active, especially in the evenings.

Swim plugs and jerk baits such as the Rapala X Rap and Yozuri Crystal Minnow will become particularly effective, as will the Bill Lewis classic Rat-L-Trap series.

Metal jigs like the Lil Bunker, Crippled Herring and the P-Line Laser Minnows will be great for targeting or getting under breaking schoolies for the larger rockfish below.

Continuing effective are jigs including bucktails and the Bass Assassin; Sassy Shads; soft plastic types, especially the newer paddle-tail varieties; and the BKDs all in lengths to match the baitfish present. To avoid hanging up when targeting the shallows, use lighter jig heads and try fishing them slow and weightless, especially after dark.

Lure color has always been a contentious issue with just about every angler I’ve ever met. The general rule has always been dark colors under low light conditions; lighter and brighter colors in higher light situations and illuminated areas. Of course the color the fish really want is always the one that you don’t have, so prepare accordingly.

Stay flexible in your approaches. Chumming and live lining will continue to produce limits up to wintertime, but light-tackle lure fishing can be far more exciting. If you haven’t tried it, now is the best time to begin.

To reduce gamefish mortality and mouth-structure damage, consider replacing the treble hooks on your lures with single hooks — or at least flattening the barbs once you’ve got your limit. It may surprise you, but it doesn’t make much difference in the fish you eventually bring to hand.

Fish Finder

As the temperatures drop, the bite heats up. Driven by their fall instinct to feed for the coming winter, rockfish are getting more aggressive, especially in low light. Trollers using small bucktails and soft plastic jigs are finding bigger gatherings of rockfish on the hunt. Light-tackle sports are also increasing, throwing plugs and jigs along anywhere there is current and structure. Bait fishers are getting their rockfish on soft crab, fresh menhaden and big bloodworms.

Spanish mackerel are showing up in breaking schools all the way up to the Bay Bridge, hitting swiftly moving lures such as Clark’s Spoons, Kastmasters and Hopkin’s Jigs. White perch, spot and croaker are in mixed schools just about anywhere there is a shell bottom at 15 to 30 feet. Crabbers should anticipate a surge when the waters cool a bit.

Cutting the engine a good distance from the shoreline, we drifted quietly toward a projecting erosion jetty. It was the one that reached farthest from shore, creating a sort of false point along an edge full of shoreline protections.

Nearing casting distance, I lowered my anchor, and we skidded to a stop. When our minor disturbance subsided, we prepped light spin rods.

They were five- to six-footers with small 1,000 series reels spooled with ultra-thin, misty copolymer monofilament, ideal for the pursuit of white perch. All the better, they were tipped with gaudy spinner baits irresistible to the species.

These long, narrow rock piles are common structures along the Bay. Perch gather there for relief from tidal currents and use the nooks and crannies for hiding from the many predator species in the Bay. Various critters such as minnows and grass shrimp that the whities feed upon also visit these jetties.

My cast was met with an instant attack, a hook-up, then the buzz of my drag. It was a long, intense struggle to keep connected to the obviously large perch. A lot can go wrong during a perch battle, from a hook tearing away from too much rod pressure to a dislodged hook from too little.

My buddy’s cast was firmly intercepted as well. Those first two fish measured 10 and 11 inches. They were also the biggest we would land, though we would eventually catch and release more than 75 fish.

Perch aficionados repeat what I fear: The number of perch 10 inches and over has decreased to a distressing degree.

White perch can reach 18 to 19 inches. But few encountered these days in the middle Chesapeake exceed nine inches; most are much smaller. That’s not a great recreational fishery.

Informal (and off-the-record) conversations with Bay fisheries biologists suggest that diminishment is an unintended consequence of our commercial fisheries policy. Netters have few constraints beyond an eight-inch minimum size. Reporting is voluntary. Thus we have no solid basis for species management.

Male perch begin spawning by two years old and females at three, when they are four to five inches long. The fish that grow slowest will spawn the most until they reach legal commercial target size of eight inches. Thereafter they are fair game. As the market for the fish has become ever more lucrative, I suspect harvests have grown — though nobody knows given the current voluntary reporting.

Is that why we’re seeing and catching so many small white perch, at least in the middle Bay?

Department of Natural Resources budgets and salaries are supported by the license fees from about 300,000 Maryland anglers, who rate the white perch as their most frequent catch. Seems to me that managing the species to create a quality recreational fishery is an appropriate objective. What do you think?

Fish Finder

Middle Bay fishing has been ever more miserable, with rockfish scarce and of barely legal size. A large school of quality stripers north of Swan Point (Hodge’s Bar) was quite hot and productive last month. But it was the only bite, and their numbers have been worn thin. Most areas from the Bay Bridge south on both shores remain barren. The fault has been laid in many directions, from an unusually cold spring, to dolphin pods chasing the rockfish north, to dead zones, to excess netting over winter, to a rumored increase in recreational poaching.

Crabbing is another disappointment. Recreational harvests have become consistently miserable, and now commercial crabbers are reporting that they’re barely breaking even. The cold spring was blamed for the poor numbers. But now it appears that the scarcity could be the result of the high winter mortality, perhaps higher than even the winter dredge numbers indicate. Nobody really knows, though the big rains certainly didn’t help. Nor the resultant vast releases from the Conowingo Dam.

Temperatures flirting with triple digits mean difficult times on the Chesapeake, not only for anglers but also for the fish.

The young and old are the most susceptible to heatstroke, but everyone needs to be aware of the danger, as it can be fatal.

Heatstroke often gives no warning, ­quickly rendering you unconscious. So take special precautions if fishing or paddling solo. Staying hydrated, continually drinking water, is a must when the temperatures go above the 80s. It would be particularly foolish for the solo adventurer not to don a life jacket.

Fish, too, are at risk during high temperatures. Catch-and-release fishing should be avoided once the mercury passes the 80-degree mark. Mortality skyrockets for rockfish (particularly those 24 inches and larger) hooked during these hot weather days, often despite best efforts to quickly release them.

A number of strategies will minimize heat problems for both the fish and you. Targeting the wee hours, from first light until 10am and from 6pm until last light will minimize exposure to the worst of the sun’s effects for both the angler and the game fish. Those hours are also prime times for the best bite.

Nighttime fishing is also an option for the more adventurous — as long as you are completely familiar with areas to be fished and prepared with good communications, extra flashlights, batteries, cold refreshments, a GPS and a fishing plan with specific locations in the hands of someone on shore. Wearing life jackets is also strongly recommended.

Rockfish are particularly active after dark and will often haunt shallower water in search of prey. I can attest that a striped bass will locate and inhale even a black fly or lure fished on a moonless night in three feet of water with no trouble. Your part as an angler is to exercise extreme stealth and silence in your approach.

It is illegal to be in possession of rockfish while angling after midnight and before 5am, rules that apply for shore anglers as well as boaters. Possession of any other legal species, though, is permitted.

Croaker and seatrout are also very active after dark, often more so than any time during the day, and will move into shallower water and feed more aggressively. Use crab, bloodworm or shrimp as bait. Seatrout are suckers for Assassin-type soft jigs fished slowly near the bottom.

White perch in the larger sizes will likewise remain active in the darker hours. Searching with noise-producing lures such as one-eighth and one-quarter-ounce Rat-L-Traps is particularly productive and can often attract marauding rockfish, a definite challenge if you’re using ultra-light tackle.

Good news is scarce these days, so I was relieved when I saw Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ results of the 2018 Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey.
But I did a double-take when I read in the report, “Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Population Healthy.”
I was confused. Expecting to see the basis for the claims of health, I came upon the revelation of a 42 percent plunge in spawning female numbers. Wasn’t that seriously unhealthy?
When, for the first time ever last year, the number of females reached the target level for healthy species reproduction, DNR celebrated. What had changed in a year? Wasn’t female abundance important any more? Aren’t spawning females key to growing and maintaining the overall population? How could losing 147 million sooks be a positive health indicator?
Next I read that adult crabs were decreasing, too. We’d lost 23 percent — that’s 84 million crabs — in a year. Claims for a healthy crab population seemed to be getting more spurious.
I was momentarily heartened when I read of a 34 percent increase in juvenile recruitment — until I recalled that last year’s juvenile counts were in the basement. Thirty four percent might not amount to much.
By now, I suspected not-so-good news was getting a rosy package— not suprisingly as this is an election year.
I found myself seeing the report as one more troubling signal that the commercial fishery may again be gaining political sway over species consideration. Among earlier troubling signs was the abrupt firing of Brenda Davis, the respected and successful manager of the department’s blue crab program. Rumor was that she had rebuffed a handful of watermen demanding the legal size of blue crabs be lowered by a quarter of an inch.
That firing sent shock waves through the department ranks, already nervous after the sacking of some effective and popular fisheries program managers the past two years, again allegedly due to commercial displeasure.
Then came the kicker. As I prepared a final draft of this column, the department published the annual Female Hard Crab Catch Limits for commercial crabbing based on the results of the 2017-2018 Winter Dredge Survey.
Comparing these limits to last year’s, I hoped to see a reduction in female harvest numbers reflecting the severe winter mortalities. Yet this year’s limits were the same as last year’s — despite that 42 percent population drop. Yes, changes could come later in the season, post October 31 — just at the onset of cold weather, which is never easy on crabs.
Arguably, but just barely, crabs could absorb another year of these now highly optimistic harvest limits. Unless, that is, we have another poor spawn or another severe winter. In that case, our beloved blue crabs may slip back into crisis, as they so often have. But the elections will be over by then.

One evening several years ago, when the Chesapeake had experienced a generous influx of gray trout (weakfish), I found a school outside the mouth of a small tributary south of the Magothy. It was just after dark, the tide was falling and the fish were positioned a long cast from the inlet to intercept the baitfish, shrimp and small crabs being carried out by the tidal current.

Throwing a black Clouser minnow on an eight-weight rod with floating line, I was letting the weighted fly sink and swing across the current along the channel cut. On every third or fourth cast, just as the line straightened below me, a fish would gently take the fly and I would set the hook.

They were nice fish up to 23 inches. The fish fights were often extended, uncertain affairs as seatrout are known for their delicate mouth structure. Avoiding putting too much strain on them was a perfect application for the long and supple fly rod.

Anchored close and off one side of the inlet, I was fishing out of a small 14-foot aluminum skiff that I had modified with flush fore and aft deck areas suitable for fly casting. It was a handy little boat with one drawback: Its thin metal hull could be noisy.

I was very careful moving about, and if I did make a noise, I would wait long minutes before resuming any activity. It was a lovely, calm night, and the waters were extremely flat.

During that particular evening, it was so quiet I could make out the distant croaking that the seatrout — members of the drum family — often make underwater when feeding in schools.

Bringing a particularly heavy specimen on board, I rapped it between the eyes with the weighty end of an aluminum flashlight. It quivered and stiffened. Assured it was sufficiently stunned, I slid it into the ice in my cooler.

Giving the night a few minutes to settle, I once again took my place on the stern casting deck. I had just missed a strike on my last cast when a violent thumping and rattling broke out from amidships. Apparently my seatrout had regained consciousness.

The sound in the still of that evening was loud and raucous, and despite the fact that I waited a number of minutes before resuming my casting, the bite was over and done. The school of fish had fled the area and did not return that night.

The lesson of that evening often comes into mind as I’m fishing. Fish have acute hearing and depend on it to keep them safe. Sound beneath the waves travels five times faster than it does above. Being a thousand times denser than air, water is also an ideal medium for propagation. Sound travels farther, much farther, underwater than above. And fish hear it all clearly.

The Chesapeake’s excellent angling makes it easy to forget that noise discipline is an important factor in fishing success. Sure, some anglers catch fish with their engines running, rock and roll blasting and themselves exuberant. But the smarter, bigger fish have most likely already vacated the area. That’s a fact to keep in mind.

We were drifting inside of the green channel marker off of Pod- ickery Point when my son got a quizzi- cal look on his face. Staring at the rapidly turn- ing spool of his reel Harrison said, “I think I’m hung up.”

“No, I don’t think so,” I replied. “Give it a minute.” The spool stopped for a beat, then started up again even faster.

I had promised my middle son suc- cess on some nice rockfish, forgetting that if you wish to amuse the fish gods, simply announce your plans. We intend- ed to drift soft crab, based on a hot tip from a charter boat skipper who had scored exceedingly well the day before.

Perfect, I thought, on waking. I knew just where the fish would likely be that morning and just what bait to use. But when I began my early-hour quest for crab, source after source said, ‘sorry, sold out.’ I feared that if the rockfish were keying on crab, anything else would be a very distant second choice.

At 10am, armed only with a bag of scraggly bloodworms purchased in desperation, we finally motored out to try live-lining.

It took a half-hour to find some likely marks off the edge of a nearby river channel before we could drop down pieces of worm on our No. 6 hooks. Feeling the tic-tic-tic of our rigs’ sinkers bouncing over shell bottom was reassuring, and soon we were swinging a couple of four- to five-inch perch.

I filled our live well, hooked up the aerator and deposited the baitfish with a sense of relief. Perhaps we could tempt some rockfish to eat after all.

Once we had a dozen small perch in our well, we headed for the Bay Bridge. It was almost noon, and the sun was bright and high.

About half way to our destination, we approached a cluster of boats sitting on chum slicks. Their anchor lines looked slack, and the postures of the anglers slumped in their craft suggest- ed things had not been going well.

As we skirted the fleet, I happened to glance down at my finder screen where some good marks strongly sug- gested rockfish. They were suspended from 10 feet to 15 feet. Our frisky perch just might prove tempting to them.

We had our live-lining outfits rigged and ready to go, so in no time, two lively baitfish were swimming down. Periodically boosting the perch into the rockfish danger zone, we slowly drifted along, pushed by a mild breeze.

Within just a few minutes, Harrison had his first run. When he slowly tight- ened the line — circle hooks, remember — his rod arched over. The drag began its hiss as the mono poured out. It was a good fish and a solid hookup. After sever- al minutes of lively struggle, we had a 29-incher in the net, then buried in ice.

Shortly after, I had a fat and healthy 25-inch striper.

Those two fish, as it turned out, were indeed blessings as our finder screen went empty. The school had fled for parts unknown.

We cruised likely looking areas for an hour or more with no results, then decided to head back to the ramp and to enjoy a late lunch. We had tempted the fish gods enough for one day. p

Chesapeake Bay has produced some of the nation’s best-known anglers, starting with Lefty Kreh and including Bob Clouser, Bob Popovics, Kevin Josenhans, Steve Silvario, Blane Choklett, Joe Cap and Tony Friedrich. These angling luminaries and many more will be on hand to meet and share information at the 18th Annual Lefty Kreh Tie Fest on February 24 and 25 at the Lowes Annapolis Hotel.

The event has become so popular that it has expanded to two full days of seminars, expositions and exhibits, all crammed full of angling information and techniques. The focus is fly fishing, but the knowledge to be gained here is invaluable for all types of light-tackle angling and covers a multitude of species and where and how to catch them.

Striped bass, our beloved rockfish, will be discussed in detail. You’ll also hear about redfish, bluefish, speckled and gray trout, white perch, hickory and white shad as well as any other species that visit our waters.

If you’ve got a yen to talk fishing, hear information from the legendary pros or curiosity about fly- or light-tackle fishing, this is the place to be. Chesapeake-area fishing guides and guide services are in attendance and eager to discuss what’s available. Don’t miss this chance to meet and hear the most skilled and creative anglers of our day.

Fly-tying and -casting demonstrations, rod-building techniques, new equipment and fly and lure components will be on site. There will be many free as well as for-fee seminars. Admission is $10 per day or $15 for both days. Anglers under 16 and active duty military personnel are admitted free of charge. Excellent food and beverages are offered for sale.

For some great deals on top-grade angling tackle, try the action and prices of this estate sale. The fishing gear and equipment from Capt. Tom Hooker’s Chesapeake Bay Charter operation will be sold this Friday and Saturday from 10am to 4pm at 3802 Chesapeake Beach Rd., Chesapeake Beach. The sale includes rods, reel, line, lures, hooks, sinkers, coolers and much more. Info: Judy Howard at 410-353p5544.

Pasadena Sportfishing Show and Flea Market, February 17 & 18

The 25th iteration brings lots of exhibits both indoors and out, with food and drink including their famous hot pit barbecue and oysters on the half-shell, sodas and adult beverages. Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company, 161 Ritchie Hwy., Severna Park: 410-439-3474.

2018 Saltwater Fishing Expo, February 24

The area’s top charter captains will be in attendance and giving seminars on tactics and tips for the Annapolis Chapter of the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishing Association Expo. Tackle, including lures and other equipment, on display and for sale. Delicious hot pit beef sandwiches, oysters, cold beer and other beverages sold. 8am-3pm, Annapolis Elks Lodge, 2517 Solomons Island Rd, Edgewater: $5 w/age discounts:

I’m buying long rods to fish from shore the windy days of early ­trophy rockfish season

My latest fishing quest originated in last year’s trophy rockfish season as I was putting in a supply of ice for my skiff’s fish box. Parking near an SUV, I had paused to compare notes with the occupants who were as eager to get into some action as I was, using a different sort of gear.

They were shore anglers, armed with the long surf-type fishing rods needed to get long casts off the shallow Bayside shorelines of the public areas that have become popular in recent years, especially during the early season.

I admired the anglers for their zeal even as I pitied them for the endless and fishless hours I suspected they experienced in their pursuit of trophy rockfish from land. Yet the anglers assured me they were doing well.

Since it was just over a week into the season, I smiled. Many anglers claim they are doing well, particularly if they aren’t. It’s really nobody’s business but their own.

Just to reassure myself that I wasn’t missing anything, I asked if they had any pictures. Of course they did, and one dived into the SUV to fetch his phone. My jaw dropped at a picture of him and his two buddies with three of the biggest, fattest trophy rock I had seen yet that year.

He also confided that those fish weren’t the only ones they’d scored but conceded that they’d already been out four or five days during the trophy season. Plus, they had released some trophy-sized fish during the earlier March and April catch-and-release season.

My opinion of the opportunities afforded to shore anglers shifted considerably. I had not yet managed to get my skiff out on the water even once. It wasn’t that I lacked the free time. What I lacked was calm seas. It had been blowing since opening day.

Weather is one of the biggest drawbacks of boat fishing during the trophy season. It’s not so much a problem if you’ve got a larger craft that can handle a good chop and provide shelter from the chilly winds that blow over the Chesapeake in April. For smaller skiffs like my 17-footer, it’s a showstopper. Getting out even once a week is often a challenge with our cold and windy springtime weather.

Shoreside angling suddenly began to make a lot more sense. There are publicly accessible sites up and down both sides of the Bay, usually with a lee shore sheltered from the worst of any small craft advisory winds. If I wanted more time on the water, I decided, perhaps I should join the long-rod crowd. But the only long rods I had were fly rods.

As it takes time (and financial resources) to put together a proper set of tackle, I put it off until the following year, which is now upon me. Doing a bit of research in the meantime, I determined what was needed and have begun to put together a couple of outfits.

The most popular surf sticks for shoreside fishing around the Chesapeake are nine- to 11-footers coupled with a 5000- or 6000-series spin reel capable of holding a few hundred yards of 20- to 30-pound monofilament or braid. The extra-capacity reels are necessary because shore-bound anglers often make casts of 150 to 300 feet, then have to contend with the sizeable runs of big fish.

Right now I’m looking forward to a busy early season beginning in just a few weeks. When it’s too cold and windy to take out my skiff, I’m planning to be along a shoreline in a comfortable beach chair, clad in well insulated clothes and sipping a warm beverage, with an eye on my rods, waiting for trophy rockfish to come by and take my baits.

Wish a Fish Foundation Needs Your Extra Gear

If you’ve got an excess of any kind of fishing equipment that you’re no longer using, the Wish a Fish Foundation could use it (410-913-9043). The Foundation is intending to raise money by selling donated fishing gear at the Pasadena Fishing Flea Market on Feb. 17 and 18 at Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Hall, 161 Ritchie Hwy., Severna Park.

Wish A Fish accepts donations on Thursday, Feb. 15, when some afternoon and evening help would be welcome. Volunteers are also needed to help at the tables at the flea market (outside but in a tent) on the 17th and maybe 18th, 7:30am-2pm: 410-439-3474.

It’s starting now. The yellow perch run is on the way, with the white perch run right behind it. Despite our wildly unpredictable weather this time of year, Maryland’s 2018 fishing season is opening up — whether you’re ready or not.

Hardier practitioners will reap the first and richest bounties, as always, so don’t be misled by freezing temperatures. The fish may hesitate during periods of extreme cold but not for long. Temperature is not the primary element affecting the coming and going of fish. They’re also driven by the increasing sunlight, lunar phases, tidal flows and the inexorable changes in their bodies. Females are already swelled to bursting from the copious quantities of roe they are producing. Males are overflowing with milt.

Staging areas are the right places to target, the deeper water up in the tributaries where the schools of fish will build up awaiting whatever secret signal their senses need to start for the headwaters to spawn. Yellow perch prefer 45- to 55-degree water for reproducing. Improbable as it seems, on a sunny, 60-degree day, the shallows of a tributary can easily reach those temperatures, though Bay waters may remain in the 30s.

If nothing else, it’s the time to break out your spring perch fishing tackle and get it ready for action. Light lines need replacing more frequently than heavier tests, so check yours. If they appear chalky, stiff or in any way suspicious, replace them now. Four- to six-pound test is the way to go this time of year. Each spool refill at a local sports store costs $3 to $4.

A seven-foot, medium-weight spin rod is adequate for pan fishing. However, maybe this spring is time to invest in a six- to six-and-a-half-foot light- or ultra-light-action rod matched with one of the many 1000-series spin reels. It is far more satisfying to use tackle matched to the fish, and casting the lightweight lures and baits you’ll be using will be far easier. Your accuracy will be vastly improved, and light bites will be far more detectable.

The best terminal setup is a pair of shad darts about 18 inches below a small weighted casting bobber. You can tip the darts with grass shrimp, minnow, bloodworms, earthworms, butter worms or any combination.

You’ll also need some warm clothes: hip waders or high boots if you’re a bank angler, some warm wool gloves (fingerless are best) and a few hand warmers, just in case. If using minnows for bait, don’t forget a small bait net. Nothing will numb your hands faster than having to plunge them repeatedly into your live bucket for baits.

A five-gallon pail remains the best general tackle container: bait bucket, fish holder and sometime seat for when the bite may be slow. A thermos full of hot beverage can also go a long way to making the cold more bearable.

Yellow perch must be at least nine inches in length — a 14-incher is a citation — and the possession limit is 10 fish per day. They, like white perch, are best prepared cleaned, rolled in panko crumbs and fried in hot peanut or corn oil until golden brown. Many devotees insist that yellow perch are better than whites, though that argument could be endless.

Fish Finder

Yellow perch are moving up into the tributaries. During the last cold snap, stalwart anglers made some holes through the ice in the upper Magothy and caught a number of yellows and not just a few whites. Spawning is definitely happening, though small males of both species are always the first on station. Pickerel are also up there in the tribs. Their spawn is imminent. Don’t ignore crappie either, as they too are schooling and becoming active in fresher water.